Finance committee  I thought the TD Bank gave a very accurate sort of costing. It's probably in the range of a billion dollars to drop the entrance requirement to 360 hours, probably because of the fact that a lot of people who would get in with a lower number of hours wouldn't qualify for very hig

Human Resources committee  I agree with that. I don't want to get into the politics of the situation, but it seems to me the government can agree to amendments on the legislation moving forward. I think I was being quite careful in my comments to say that there were points in the bill that could be clarifi

Human Resources committee  Just to state that it's my understanding that the nominations to the board will be on the advice of the employer and worker commissioners as part of a group of three, with somebody from the government, right? I think there's one person from the government. So I think it anticipat

Human Resources committee  It's our view that ownership of the program appropriately rests with the federal government, with input from business and labour. So the EI Commission should be playing a role. And it's also our view that there should be a separate financial account for the EI program. We have a

Human Resources committee  Very quickly, around the transparency and accountability issues, I'm sensitive to the point being made that it has been most useful to speak to how the legislation reflects the intent of the government. I think there was a set of motivations in developing this legislation that o

Human Resources committee  It's my understanding that the act empowers the minister to spend a certain amount of money from the EI account for active measures under part II. As Mr. Roy stated, when those funds are transferred to the provinces, it's important to have in place effective provincial institutio

Human Resources committee  For training under active measures.

Human Resources committee  When we had the premium rate-setting mechanism, the view was being expressed, from the employer side as well, that there was a need to expand those active measures, given skill shortages, etc. One concern about this new mechanism goes back to Ms. Sgro's point: if we were to ente

Human Resources committee  I absolutely agree with what was said. The concern here is that if we enter an economic downturn and the premium revenues are not generating enough revenue to pay for benefits and the approved training, what is going to happen? If you go to proposed subsection 80(1) of this bil

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the opportunity to appear. I might just say, as I had the opportunity to say to you earlier, Mr. Chair, that we really appreciated the recent report of the committee on employability issues. It was a very constructive document and quite an important reference point

Finance committee  The $54 billion surplus that's sitting in the EI account has interest charged to it every year. This bill does nothing to change that. It still sits there as a separate account integrated with the public accounts. Minister Flaherty confirmed in a letter that if the EI program wen

Finance committee  On appointments to the board, my understanding is that there'll be a nominating committee that will consist of a chair.... The worker and employer commissioners will be involved in the process. So I think there's some presumption that both the employer and worker sides will have

Finance committee  I basically agree with what you say. That's my interpretation. I think with the $2 billion, it's intended that it would set up enough to allow, over time, the new board to not necessarily increase a premium immediately, because they would belt up the reserve. But we don't really

Finance committee  I'm having difficulty myself working out just precisely how this new fund would set the premiums in the kind of economic context moving forward. I guess the new board will have to set the premium on a forward-looking basis, what's going to balance the account in the coming year,

Finance committee  I agree. We should have a fund with a reserve sufficient to go through recessions. We don't need to build up that reserve now, because we already have more than enough for it. My understanding of the bill, though, is that the parameters for premium changes from year to year are